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Virtual Reality Projected To Grow To $2 Trillion Long-Term

The
future landscape of the Internet of Things will be largely occupied by virtual reality and augmented reality products and services.

With new entrants on the consumer hardware side like
Sony’s just-released PlayStation VR, which is expected to sell millions of units by the end of the year, the VR and AR markets are growing.

The VR and AR market is forecast to grow by
almost 30 times its size after 2020, according to a new study from Citi’s Global Perspectives and Solutions group.

In the next four years, the AR and VR market is forecast to grow to $80
billion. However, the market will grow to $2.16 trillion by 2035, according to Citi.

Another recent study by Machina Research forecasts the entire IoT market to reach $3
trillion by 2025. Almost half ($1.3 trillion) of that revenue will come directly from end-users paying for products and services, according to that study.

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By 2025, Citi projects the AR and VR
market to reach $692 billion. Most of the growth in the coming years will come from VR hardware like head-mounted displays.

Another recent study by IDC forecasts the AR and VR market to reach
more than $162 billion by 2020.

Numbers aside, the one consistent projection across studies is that the growth in the short-term will come from virtual reality hardware.

Many companies
are currently battling for market-share on the VR devices front for the holiday season. Samsung recently released an updated version of its Gear VR headset, although some of the smartphones that can
actually drive the headset have been recalled.

Google also recently announced its Daydream VR platform, along with the first Daydream-ready phone and Daydream View, which is a viewer similar
to Samsung’s Gear VR, but with wireless connection and a controller. Both devices are scheduled to be available before the holidays.

On the high-end immersive VR spectrum, Oculus is
bringing additional controllers and room-scale VR capabilities to the market later this fall, as well as working to reduce the cost barriers for VR-enabled PCs.

Chase, as you can appreciate, our projections are not based on any research as there doesn't seem to be any that one might consider truly indicative of all of the possible applications of VR, including many that the promoters haven't even thought of. So, thinking positively, we came up with our numbers on the fly, so to speak. Perhaps five or ten years from now someone will remember them and grade us---however we do reserve the right to revise out estimates in the light of any real facts or research that might materialize.